[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 27 (Monday, July 12, 1993)]
[Pages 1274-1282]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session at Waseda University in Tokyo

 July 7, 1993

    The President. Thank you very much. Mr. President, thank you for 
that introduction, I foolishly came out here without my earphones, so I 
don't know what he said to make you laugh--[laughter]--or what he said 
about Robert Kennedy. So I should give a speech about how we need to 
train more Americans to speak good Japanese. Perhaps someday an American 
President will come here and give a speech to you in your native 
language. Then I will know we are really making progress in reaching 
across the barriers that divide us.
    It is a great pleasure for me and for the First Lady to be here at 
this distinguished university today. Waseda is a center of true academic 
excellence and a training ground for many of Japan's most distinguished 
leaders. I am proud to be the first American President to visit here.
    But as has already been said, 31 years ago another American, whom I 
admired very much, Robert Kennedy, spoke in this hall. It was a very 
different time. The modern economics of Japan and Asia were just 
emerging. It was the middle of the cold war. Fierce arguments raged 
here, as in other nations, about where the future lay, with communism or 
democracy, with socialism or capitalism. On that evening in 1962, those 
arguments spilled onto this stage. When members of the student Communist 
movement heckled Robert Kennedy, he challenged their leader to come up 
and join him. In his characteristic way, Kennedy transformed a diatribe 
into a dialog and cold-mindedness into an open debate.
    That is what I hope we will have here today. The exchange that 
followed was heated, but it demonstrated the best of the values of 
freedom and democracy that our two nations share. Three decades later, 
on this day, in this place, the times are very different, but no less 
challenging. The need for vigorous and open dialog remains. The time has 
come for America to join with Japan and others in this region to create 
a new Pacific community. And this, to be sure, will require both of our 
nations to lead and both of our nations to change.
    The new Pacific community will rest on a revived partnership between 
the United States and Japan, on progress toward more open economies and 
greater trade, and on support for democracy. Our community must also 
rest on the firm and continuing commitment of the United States to 
maintain its treaty alliances and its forward military presence in Japan 
and Korea and throughout this region.
    Is it appropriate? I believe it is, to address these issues here in 
Japan. The post-cold-war relationship between our two nations is one of 
the great success stories of the latter half of the 20th century. We 
have built a vital friendship. We continue to anchor this region's 
security and to fuel its development. Japan is an increasingly important 
global partner in peacekeeping, in promoting democracy, in protecting 
the environment, in addressing major challenges in this region and 
throughout the world. Because our relationship has been built on 
enduring common interests and genuine friendship, it has transcended 
particular leaders in each country, and it will continue to do so.
    History has decided the debate that raged here in 1962, a debate 
over whether communism works. It didn't. Its ruins litter the world 
stage. Our two nations have proved that capitalism works, that democracy 
works, that freedom works. Still, no system is perfect. New problems and 
challenges constantly arise. Old problems deeply rooted in cultures and 
prejudices remain. To make the most of this new world, we both must 
change. As Robert Kennedy once noted,

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``Progress is a nice word, but its motivator is change, and change has 
its enemies.''
    The cold war passed from the world stage as the global flow of 
information pierced the Iron Curtain with news of other ways of living. 
And the world moved steadily toward a more integrated global economy. 
Money, management, and technology are increasingly mobile today. 
Trillions of dollars in capital traverse the globe every day. In one 
generation international trade has nearly tripled as a percentage of 
global output. In the late 1980's, increased trade accounted for well 
over half of the new jobs in the United States.
    Meanwhile there have been huge changes in the organization and the 
nature of work itself. We are moving away from an economy based on 
standardized mass production to one dominated by an explosion of 
customized production and services. The volume of information is 
increasing at an astonishing rate. Change has become the only constant 
of life. And only firms that are flexible and innovative, with very 
well-trained people, are doing very well.
    The new global economy requires little explanation here in Japan. 
You have pioneered the modernization of Asia. Now from Taipei to Seoul, 
from Bangkok to Shanghai, Asian economies are growing at dramatic rates, 
providing jobs and incomes, providing consumer goods and services to 
people who could not have even dreamed of them just a generation ago.
    To be sure, Asia's progress is uneven. There are still millions in 
abject poverty. Four of the world's last five Communist regimes and 
other repressive regimes continue to defy the clear laws of human nature 
and the future. But the scenes of life in this region paint an 
unmistakable picture of change and vitality and opportunity and growth.
    A generation ago in Singapore, bumboats floated up to the boat quay 
to unload their cargoes of produce and cloth which were sent out into a 
labyrinth of smoky shophouses and small family markets. Today such 
scenes are joined by those of container ships steaming into Singapore's 
modern port, one every 6 minutes, disgorging their goods into mechanized 
warehouses and modern supermarkets. In China's Guangdong Province, young 
entrepreneurs are leaving safe jobs in state-owned enterprises to start 
their own companies. To describe their daring spirit the Chinese have 
coined a phrase that literally means ``to plunge into the sea.'' Such 
images help to explain why Asia likely will remain the world's fastest 
growing region for some time. Its imports will exceed 2 trillion U.S. 
dollars. This growth will help to make a tripolar world driven by the 
Americans, by Europe, and by Asia.
    In years past, frankly, some Americans viewed Asia's vibrancy and 
particularly Japan's success as a threat. I see it very differently. I 
believe the Pacific region can and will be a vast source of jobs, of 
income, of partnerships, of ideas, of growth for our own people in the 
United States, if we have the courage to deal with the problems both of 
our nations have within and beyond our borders.
    Already over 40 percent of American trade is with this region. Last 
year, over 2.3 million American jobs were related to the $120 billion we 
exported to Asia. Millions of Asian Americans in the United States today 
embody our Nation's devotion to family values, to hard work, to 
education. In so doing, they have helped to strengthen our cultural ties 
and our economic ties to this region.
    Today, our Nation is ready to be a full partner in Asian growth. 
After years of difficult transition, our private sector is embracing the 
opportunities and meeting the challenges of the global economy. 
Productivity is on the rise. Attempts to pierce overseas markets are 
more intense than ever. Many of our manufacturing service and financial 
firms are now the high-quality, low-cost producers in their fields.
    At last, our governmental sector in the United States is also moving 
in the right direction. After years of being urged by Japan and by other 
nations to do something about the massive American budget deficit, we 
are on the brink of doing something about it. After years of being urged 
to do something about improving our education system and making our 
manufacturing and other sectors more productive and more competitive, we 
are doing something about it.
    We are nearing the adoption of a bold plan to reduce our public 
deficit by $500 billion over the next 5 years and to increase our in- 

[[Page 1276]]

vestments in education, in technology, and in new jobs for the American 
people. We are moving to reform our health care system, the world's most 
expensive, to control costs and provide quality care to all of our 
people. We are moving to give incentives to the millions of Americans 
who live in poverty so they will move from poverty into middle class 
working lives. We too are moving to reform our political system, to 
reduce the cost of our political campaigns and the influence of 
lobbyists on our lawmakers. We are moving to face one of our most 
painful social problems, high rates of crime and violence, with new 
initiatives to put more police officers on our streets, give better 
futures to our young people in depressed areas, and keep guns out of the 
hand of dangerous criminals.
    But it is not enough for the United States to change within. To 
increase the jobs, raise the incomes, and improve the quality of life of 
the American people, we must also change our relationships with our 
partners and ask them to do the same.
    Our first international economic priority must be to create a new 
and stronger partnership between the United States and Japan. Our 
relationship with Japan is the centerpiece of our policy toward the 
Pacific community. Our two nations account for nearly 40 percent of the 
world's output. Neither of us could thrive without the other. Producers 
in each of our countries are consumers for firms in the other.
    We are also joined in our efforts to address global economic 
problems. We work closely in an effort to move toward a new trade 
agreement. And I hope Japan will join in the initiative I proposed just 
2 days ago in San Francisco: a meeting of the senior G-7 economics and 
labor and education advisers to look into a new problem with the global 
economy, stubbornly persistent unemployment in the richest nations of 
the world, even where there is economic growth, rooted in the inability 
of so many of these nations to create new jobs.
    The economic relationship we have has always benefited both our 
nations. Americans buy huge volumes of Japanese products. American 
companies in Japan employ thousands of your citizens. Joint ventures 
between Japanese and American enterprises advance the economic and other 
interests of people in both nations. Japanese companies have opened many 
manufacturing firms, sales offices, and other facilities in the United 
States. In the 1980's when my country went on a huge debt binge, 
massively increasing public and private debt, Japanese purchases of much 
of that debt helped to keep our economy going and helped to prevent our 
interest rates from exploding.
    Still, our economic relationship is not in balance. Unlike our 
relations with all other wealthy nations, we have a huge and persistent 
trade deficit with Japan. It usually exceeds $40 billion, with a deficit 
in manufacturing products in excess of $60 billion in spite of the fact 
that in recent years our manufacturing productivity has increased very 
greatly.
    It is impossible to attribute this trade imbalance solely to unfair 
Japanese barriers, from governmental policies to a unique distribution 
system. Indeed, it is in part simply a tribute to Japanese abilities to 
produce high-quality, competitively priced goods and to the skill of 
Japanese businesses in piercing so many overseas markets, including our 
own. Yet, it is clear that our markets are more open to your products 
and your investments than yours are to ours. And it is clear that 
governmental policies consistently promoting production over 
consumption, exports over domestic sales, and protections of the home 
market contribute to this problem. The trade deficit is on the rise this 
year even with the market rise of the yen against the dollar. Though 
American purchases of Japanese products have remained fairly constant, 
Japanese purchases of American products have dropped markedly as a 
consequence of slow growth here in your economy with no offsetting 
government policies to stimulate demand.
    This problem has, as all of you know, fueled resentment in our 
country both from workers and from businesses who have worked hard to 
streamline their operations, reduce labor costs, and increase 
productivity and now want the benefits that can only come from being 
able to compete and win in a global economy. Our people understand when 
our Nation has a huge trade deficit with an emerging economy like China. 
The

[[Page 1277]]

same was true just a few years ago with Korea and Taiwan. But both those 
nations have moved closer to trade balance with the United States as 
they have become more prosperous. The same has not happened with Japan.
    This persistent trade imbalance has not just hurt American workers 
and businesses, it has hurt the Japanese people. It has deprived you as 
consumers of the full benefit of your hard and productive work. For 
example, partly because of restrictive economic policies, the average 
Japanese family pays more than twice as much of your income for food as 
the average American family. And many other consumer products are far, 
far more expensive here than elsewhere, with these differentials going 
far beyond what can be accounted for by the transportation costs of 
bringing products to this market.
    Our relationships with Japan have been durable not only because of 
our security alliance and our political partnership but because our 
economic relationship has actually served our interests and yours. I 
believe we must change this economic interest to improve the lives not 
just of the American people but of the Japanese people as well. It would 
be wrong for me to come here as President to ask you to embrace changes 
that would only benefit the people who live in my country. I believe 
that the changes I advocate will benefit both of us, or I would not be 
here pushing them.
    During my April meeting with Prime Minister Miyazawa, we agreed to 
build a new framework for trade on macroeconomic, sectoral, and 
structural issues. Now, I don't know how that translates into Japanese, 
but the average American has no idea what that means. [Laughter] What it 
means is that we are going to try to deal honestly with the differences 
we have over our nations' economic policies. We want to talk about the 
specific sectors of the economy where we believe that more trade is 
warranted. We want to talk about structural differences between our two 
countries that operate as effective barriers to finding greater balance 
and greater volume of trade. Our governments have made progress in these 
last few days in crafting the basic principles of this new framework. 
And we will persist until we can produce a sound agreement that is in 
the interests of people in both countries.
    What the United States seeks, let me make clear, is not managed 
trade or so-called trade by the numbers but better results from better 
rules of trade. Openness like this cannot simply come from pressure from 
the United States. That is one reason I wanted so much to be here with 
you today. A new openness can only come ultimately when Japanese leaders 
and Japanese citizens recognize that it is in your interests to pursue 
this course.
    So today I would send this message to all of you and to the people 
beyond the walls here in this hall: You have a common cause with the 
people of America, a common cause against outdated practices that 
undermine our relationship and diminish the quality of your lives. The 
ideas I propose are beneficial to both of us because they will increase 
the number and lower the costs of the products you are able to buy, the 
services you are able to access, and they will thereby reward the work, 
the education, and the skills that you bring to daily life here in 
Japan. You are entitled to no less, and it will be a part of your role 
as a great nation for the foreseeable future to have that sort of open 
relationship. We should take these steps together for ourselves and for 
future generations. I am optimistic that the people of Japan and the 
people of the United States can hear the same message and move toward 
the same goal.
    Japan has, after all, a proud heritage of embracing bold change when 
the times call for it. Much of the success you have enjoyed in recent 
years comes from a phenomenal ability to adapt to the changing contours 
of the global economy. And over 120 years ago, the leaders of the Meiji 
Restoration embarked on a series of rapid and successful initiatives 
that transformed a feudal Japan into a modern society, making it more 
open to the West and the broader world, without sacrificing the 
uniqueness of the Japanese culture.
    On this campus today, there is a statue honoring one of the great 
statesmen of that period, this school's founder, Count Okuma. In his 
exhaustive narrative of the Meiji Restoration, Okuma attributes the 
period's reforms, and I quote, to ``thoughtful and farsighted Japanese 
leaders.'' And he concludes,

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``Even as the spirit of liberality has animated the Japanese race during 
the past half-century of its remarkable progress, so it will ever impel 
its march along the paths of civilization and humanity.'' To keep the 
country's doors wide open is a national principle to which Japan has 
attached the greatest importance from its earliest days. I believe and 
hope that spirit still prevails and that a stronger Japan-U.S. economic 
relationship, driven by mutual wisdom, can power our new Pacific 
community well into the next century.
    The second building block of that community must be a more open 
regional and global economy. That means that together we must resist the 
pressures that are now apparent in all wealthy countries to put up walls 
and to protect specific markets and constituencies in times of slow 
growth. We must resist them because the only way wealthy countries can 
grow richer is if there is global economic growth and we can increase 
trade with people who themselves are growing more prosperous. An 
essential starting point is the successful completion of the Uruguay 
round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. I am committed to 
doing that by the end of this year, and I hope that your government is 
also. I believe we should also work to reduce regional trade barriers. 
That is what we in the United States are attempting to do in negotiating 
an agreement with Mexico and Canada not to close North America to the 
rest of the world but to open it up. And perhaps we should consider 
Asian-Pacific trading areas as well.
    The most promising economic forum we have for debating a lot of 
these issues in the new Pacific community is the Organization for Asian-
Pacific Economic Cooperation, APEC. The 15 members of APEC account for 
nearly half of the world's output and most of the fastest growing 
economies. This fall, we will host the APEC ministerial meeting in 
Seattle. I will speak at that meeting to signal America's engagement in 
the region. But I hope we can go beyond it. I am consulting with the 
leaders of APEC at this moment on a proposal that they join me in 
Seattle in an informal leadership conference to discuss what we can do 
to continue to bring down the barriers that divide us and to create more 
opportunities for all of our people. In addressing common economic 
challenges we can begin to chart a course toward prosperity and 
opportunity for the entire region.
    Of course, the purpose of meetings like this is not simply more 
meetings and communiques, it is to improve our people's lives, not just 
the lives of those who dash around financial districts in Tokyo or New 
York with cellular telephones in their pockets but the millions of 
people in my country and the billions of people on the Earth who work 
hard every day in factories and on farms simply to feed their families 
and to give their children a better life than they have enjoyed. It will 
make a world of difference to them if our leaders can set pro-grow 
policies, dismantle trade barriers, and get government out of the way. 
Expanded trade and more open economies will not only enrich people, they 
also empower them. Trade is a revolutionary force that wears down the 
foundations of despotic rule. The experiences of the Philippines, 
Taiwan, Korea, and others prove that the move toward more open economies 
also feeds people's hunger for democracy and freedom and more open 
political systems.
    This then should be our third priority in building a new Pacific 
community: to support the wave of democratic reform sweeping across this 
region. Economic growth, of course, can occur in closed societies, even 
in repressive ones. But in an information age, it cannot ultimately be 
maintained. People with prosperity simply crave more freedom. Open 
societies are better able to address the frictions that economic growth 
creates and to assure the continuance of prosperity. A free press roots 
out corruption, even though it sometimes aggravates political leaders. 
The rule of law encourages and protects investments.
    This spread of democracy is one of the best guarantees of regional 
peace and prosperity and stability that we could ever have in this 
region. Democracies make better neighbors. They don't wage war on each 
other, engage in terrorism, or generate refugees. Democracy makes it 
possible for allies to continue their close relations despite changes in 
leadership. Democracy's virtues are at the core of why we have worked so 
hard to support the reforms and the reformers in Russia,

[[Page 1279]]

which is now on a path toward becoming one of the Pacific's great 
democratic powers.
    The movement toward democracy is the best guarantor of human rights. 
Some have argued that democracy is somehow unsuited for Asia, or at 
least for some nations in Asia, that human rights are relative and that 
they simply mask Western cultural imperialism. I believe those voices 
are wrong. It is not Western urging or Western imperialism but the 
aspiration of Asian peoples themselves that explain the growing number 
of democracies and democratic movements in this region. And it is an 
insult to the spirit and hopes and dreams of the people who live here to 
assert that anything else is true.
    Each of our Pacific nations must pursue progress while maintaining 
the best of their unique cultures. But there is no cultural 
justification for torture or tyranny. We refuse to let repression cloak 
itself in moral relativism, for democracy and human rights are not 
occidental yearnings, they are universal yearnings.
    These, then, are the economic essentials for this new Pacific 
community, one in which most of you, being so much younger than I am, 
will spend far more of your lives in than will I. A better U.S.-Japan 
relationship, more open economies and trade, more democratic 
governments, these things will make your lives better. I will pursue 
these goals vigorously. You will see that commitment reflected in what 
our administration does. Together we can make this decade and the coming 
century a time of greater security, democracy, prosperity, and personal, 
family, community, and nation empowerment.
    So today, on this holiday of Tanabata, a holiday of joining together 
and hopeful wishes, let us wish for a new Pacific community, built on 
shared effort, shared benefit, and a shared destiny. Let us write out 
our brightest dreams for our children on pieces of paper as bright and 
differently colored and numberless as are the peoples of the Asian-
Pacific region. In the spirit of this holiday, let us fly those dreams 
from bamboo poles that are as high as our hopes for the era, and then, 
together, let us dedicate ourselves to the hard work of making those 
dreams come true. Senator Kennedy was right when he said that change has 
its enemies. But my friends, we can make change our friend.
    Thank you very much.
    Now, I'm going to take some questions, and I think I'm supposed to 
go down here. So I will try to go down there without breaking my leg, 
and then we'll take some questions.

Japanese Imperial Family

    Q. Thank you for giving me a chance to ask you a question today. The 
wedding ceremony of the Crowned Prince and the Princess Masako Owada was 
held recently. What did you think of the ceremony? And also, what do you 
think of the Imperial Family, which you don't have in the United States?
    The President. Well, the Imperial Family is an important part of 
your culture. We do not have one in the United States, as you know. 
That's because when we broke off from England, they had a king, and so 
we thought we had to behave differently. So we elected our Presidents, 
and then over 100 years later we decided they could only stay for 8 
years. And then when times got tough, most of them found it was 
difficult even to stay 8 years.
    But let me say, I'm very interested in the Imperial Family. We 
followed the marriage with great interest, my wife and I, and discussed 
the marriage and how impressed we were with the Princess and with the 
devotion of the Prince who pursued her. I have invited the Emperor and 
the Empress to visit the United States next year, and we are hopeful 
that they will come sometime in the late spring or the early summer and 
that they will have a very good trip. We are eager to receive them.
    Q. Thank you very much.

Iraq and Bosnia

    Q. With regard, Mr. President, to the Iraq retaliatory attack. Of 
course, this took place, and there was no military mobilization that 
took place on the part of Iraq. However, this attack did take place. And 
I'm just wondering what your thoughts are on this situation.
    The President. You mean the attack that I ordered on Iraq?
    Q. With regard to this attack, of course, there are criticisms that 
are launched by the Middle Eastern countries that perhaps this

[[Page 1280]]

might be a discriminatory measure that was taken by the United States 
society which still has as the majority the white people. And in the 
United States, of course, despite that fact, it's an ethnically mixed 
group of people who live there, and you have your own special situation. 
However, there is this criticism that has been launched by the Middle 
Eastern countries that this is, in fact, nationalism where, perhaps, 
discrimination on the part of the United States against Iraq. And then, 
of course, there is also the issue of the ethnic cleansing that is 
taking place in Bosnia that I would also like to have you address.
    The President. First, let me talk about Iraq, and then I will 
discuss the other issues. There was no discrimination involved. Our 
intelligence and law enforcement agencies conducted an investigation on 
the people who were arrested in Kuwait and charged with bringing in a 
very dangerous bomb for the purpose of assassinating former President 
Bush because of actions he took as President in the Gulf war. I was 
advised that they believe that that in fact occurred, that a plan 
devised by the Iraqi Government was attempted to be carried out in 
Kuwait to kill former President Bush with a bomb that had a lethal 
radius of about 400 yards. That is, it could have killed people within 
400 yards around where it exploded. So I took what I thought was 
appropriate and perfectly legal retaliatory action, basically as a 
deterrent to further behavior of that kind. It had nothing to do with 
any racial or religious distinction. And indeed, Iraq's closest 
neighbors, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, applauded the action that was taken.
    Secondly, with regard to Bosnia, the United States has spent 
hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid. It is prepared to 
do more and advocated, along with the nonaligned nations and most of the 
Muslim nations of the world, lifting the arms embargo on the Bosnian 
Government and giving the Bosnian Government time to implement the arms 
embargo with standby air power. That position did not prevail in the 
United Nations because others were against it. That's what I thought the 
right thing to do was.
    The United States also was involved in helping people in Somalia. We 
were actively involved in the agreement announced just last weekend to 
restore Father Aristide to Haiti within 4 months.
    There was no racial or religious or ethnic discrimination involved 
in the Iraqi action. It was, I believe, clearly the right thing to do. 
But we are reaching out to Muslim peoples all across the world with our 
friendship with Turkey, our friendship with many of the newly 
independent states of the former Soviet Union, and elsewhere, people who 
share our values. We respect their religious and their cultural 
traditions. We want stronger ties. And I very much hope that the 
multiethnic government in Bosnia can survive.
    Q. Thank you.

Korean Reunification

    Q. I am a student, Mr. President, from South Korea, and I would like 
to ask you a question about the Korean Peninsula. As you are aware, sir, 
South Korea and the DPRK are, in fact, not reintegrated. We are the last 
two states in the nation that need to be reintegrated. And I'm wondering 
if you have any prospects, if you have any thoughts on when the 
reintegration of South Korea and North Korea might take place.
    The President. Well, I think that that is a matter for the Korean 
people themselves to decide. And we will obviously support the decision 
that they make. I have to tell you that my hopes for an early 
reintegration have been dampened somewhat by the recent controversy over 
whether North Korea would withdraw from the NPT regime, not allow the 
international inspectors to continue to inspect the sites to ensure that 
North Korea does not become a nuclear power. That would be a very grave 
development, not just for South Korea but for Japan as well and for all 
of Asia.
    I think the most important thing I can do as President to speed the 
day of reunification on terms that are humane and decent and honorable 
is to maintain a strong presence in the area, to honor our security 
commitments, and to do everything I can to deter the development of 
nuclear potential in North Korea. These two nations should unite again 
based on shared culture and family ties and common economic interests 
and a common interest in a peaceful future, not trying

[[Page 1281]]

to be a nuclear power at a time when Russia and the United States, for 
example, are trying to reduce their nuclear arsenals. We need fewer 
nuclear weapons, not more. That's one reason I announced that we would 
not resume nuclear testing a few days ago, in the hopes that we could, 
together with the other nuclear powers, continue to discourage the 
development of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

Human Rights

    Q. Mr. President, you mentioned the importance of human rights, and 
I understand that recently you've submitted some international 
conventions to the Senate for consideration, including the convention on 
torture. Does this indicate a change in policy from previous 
administrations concerning human rights, and do you have any plans to 
submit any other human rights conventions to the Senate?
    The President. Well first of all, I want to see how we do with the 
ones we submitted. I think they will be ratified. I wouldn't rule out 
the submission of others. It does recommend a change in policy. Our 
administration has been very forceful in its advocacy of human rights. 
The Secretary of State gave a very eloquent speech in Vienna recently 
advocating the universality of human rights and rejecting the idea that 
there were some cultural relativism involved. And I think you can look 
forward to the United States standing up for human rights on every 
continent, in every way that we possibly can. I will say that it is very 
rare for me to have a discussion with any leader from any other country 
in which I do not bring the subject up. And we work at it steadily every 
day.
    Q. We will end this program because of your schedule.
    The President. I would stay all day if I could. I like this.

Hillary Clinton and the Role of Women

    Q. In Japan there are many people who think that women should not 
work, have a job, especially after marriage. But in the United States, I 
heard that feminism is more accepted in people, and there is less 
discrimination. Actually, there are many working women like Mrs. Hillary 
Clinton. And then I want to ask you two questions. How do the American 
people think about Mrs. Hillary Clinton acting or making political 
speeches in official situations? And second, what do you yourself think 
of her as your political partner?
    The President. Well, first of all, most American women, even with 
young children, are in the work force now. More than half of them, even 
with children under 6, are in the work force. That presents us with a 
great source of wealth and talent to strengthen America. It also 
presents us with challenges, providing adequate care for the children, 
trying to provide adequate time for the parents to be with the children. 
After all, raising children is still the most important work of any 
society, and it should not be minimized. But I strongly believe that 
women should have equal opportunities with men in all areas. We have 
many women in the United States Senate, we have many women Governors of 
States, and someday before long I think we'll have a woman President.
    As you noted, my wife is a lawyer. We're both lawyers, and most 
people who know us think that she is the real lawyer in our family. So I 
like it when she gives political speeches, when she works as she is now 
as the head of our task force to reform our health care system. I asked 
her to do it because I thought she had more ability than anyone else I 
knew to do that job. And if we get that done for the American people, 
that will be perhaps the most important social reform in America in a 
generation. And so I think I would be irresponsible as the President of 
the United States not to use the talents of someone I know can serve the 
American people. It's very simple to me; it's a straightforward thing.
    Now, having said that, this issue is still--it's not as 
controversial perhaps as in Japan, but it's still a controversial issue 
at home. There are still people who have some reservations about the 
role of women in various areas of our life. There are still people who 
have certain reservations about whether a spouse of a political leader 
should make speeches, have opinions that are expressed, and do this kind 
of work. I might say that most of the people who say that my wife 
shouldn't be doing this really disagree with our position. They're 
saying she shouldn't be

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doing this, but most of them just don't agree with what we're trying to 
do. So there is some controversy in the United States about it, but I 
think most people, and I know most women, respect the fact that the 
First Lady is functioning as a full citizen and as a partner, as a part 
of this administration. I am ultimately responsible for the decisions 
that the President must make. There are all kinds of things that we 
never even talk about. But to ask her to do something she is clearly 
competent and able to do seems to me is the right thing to do for 
America.
    If you look at the population trends in Japan, your rather low 
birthrate but your phenomenally high life expectancy, so that most 
Japanese couples will have literally decades after their children have 
left the home, it seems to me that your country will have to take 
advantage of the brains and the education and the skills and the 
capacities of women in order to be what you ought to be and do what you 
have to do. I think you will have to do that.
    Q. Thank you very much.
    The President. Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 9:29 a.m. at Okuma Hall. A tape was not 
available for verification of the content of these remarks.